Lafayette to host Bicentennial Symposium on democracy

Honoring its rich academic heritage, Lafayette College will host, on Sept. 10 and 11, a Bicentennial Symposium centered on the theme Democracy: Past, Present, and Future, featuring plenary talks by two leading scholars of democracy and a series of panel discussions, including more than 20 Lafayette faculty representing more than 10 departments and programs.

“This symposium will be a hallmark academic event of our Bicentennial year, and we are thrilled to be in conversation with leading scholars of democracy in this important global period: political theorist Hélène Landemore and constitutional law expert Akhil Reed Amar,” says Provost Laura McGrane.

“Our faculty are at the forefront of scholarship in areas critical to national and global questions of democracy. It’s wonderful to have these two esteemed thinkers joining with us, our students, and surrounding communities during the convergence of our nation’s semiquincentennial and the bicentennial of our College,” she says. 

Hélène Landemore, professor of political science at Yale, and an expert in democratic theory, political epistemology, and technology ethics. | Contributed photo

Landemore, professor of political science at Yale and an expert in democratic theory, political epistemology, and technology ethics, will deliver a keynote address at 7 p.m. Sept. 10 in Colton Chapel. A Faculty Fellow with Yale’s Institute for Social and Policy Studies, and a Distinguished Research Fellow at the Institute for Ethics in AI at the University of Oxford, England, she is the author of Politics Without Politicians: The Case for Citizen Rule and Open Democracy (Thesis Books, 2026) and Reinventing Popular Rule for the Twenty-First Century (Princeton University Press, 2022), among several other books. 

In her groundbreaking work on the value of inclusive and deliberative democratic practices, Landemore argues that decision-making and governing power belong in the hands of citizens. She is the founder of the Citizens’ Assemblies research program, which puts her theoretical ideas into practice.

Amar, Sterling Professor of Law and Political Science at Yale and an expert on constitutional history, the origins of the American legal system, and the evolution of civil rights, will offer a keynote talk at a noon luncheon Sept. 11 in the Wilson Room in Pfenning Alumni Center. He is a prolific scholar, and his most recent book, Born Equal: Remaking America’s Constitution, 1840-1920 (Basic Books, 2025), is the second volume in a trilogy on American Constitutional history, following The Words that Made Us: America’s Constitutional Conversation, 1760-1840 (Basic Books, 2021), the first book in the series. 

Akhil Reed Amar, Sterling Professor of Law and Political Science at Yale and an expert on constitutional history, the origins of the American legal system, and the evolution of civil rights. | Photo by Harold Shapiro

Amar’s scholarship explores the historical foundations of American democracy and constitutional design. He argues, among other things, that the promise of birth equality is at the center of our constitutional identity and the cornerstone of many crucial discussions about racial and gender equality in the years following the Civil War. He is also a co-host of the podcast Amarica’s Constitution, where he translates his scholarly insights into a public dialogue on the past and future of the American experiment. 

“During the two-day symposium, our speakers will lay an intellectual foundation to reflect on democracy’s current challenges and encourage us to imagine and work toward a more just and equal future,” says McGrane, adding that Lafayette faculty will present and discuss their scholarly work in a series of interdisciplinary and wide-ranging panel discussions.

All of the Bicentennial Symposium events are free and open to the public. Attendees will be asked to register in advance.